Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 103: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from, “Clean Up Your Client List”
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast brought to you by
- 0:07Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
- 0:11Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
- 0:25Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? So let's face it,
- 0:33Speaker 2: some clients are worth every second and others they drain
- 0:39Speaker 2: your time, your energy, and sometimes even your bank account.
- 0:43Speaker 2: Every freelancer, entrepreneur, business developer knows them. The scammer, the dummy,
- 0:49Speaker 2: the creep, the drifter, the freeloader, the winer, and the
- 0:52Speaker 2: permanently dissatisfied client. The truth well, half of all small
- 0:59Speaker 2: bits businesses face scams, and countless freelancers lose thousands and
- 1:04Speaker 2: chasing these wrong clients. Business developers listening, I know you've
- 1:09Speaker 2: come across these clients as well. Wouldn't you like to
- 1:11Speaker 2: know how to deal with them? I bet you would.
- 1:14Speaker 2: But before we get into that, wouldn't you like to
- 1:17Speaker 2: deal with the growth of your own business development career? Well,
- 1:21Speaker 2: if you're going to do that, then grab yourself a
- 1:23Speaker 2: copy of the Business Development Body of Knowledge. It's available
- 1:26Speaker 2: on Amazon. Read the book and that will give you
- 1:30Speaker 2: the opportunity to then take the Business Development Professional certification.
- 1:35Speaker 2: That's the BDP certification. You can find out more about
- 1:39Speaker 2: that at the Global Business Development Association website at www
- 1:44Speaker 2: dot GBD Association dot org. Okay, so I bet everybody
- 1:49Speaker 2: wants to know how do we deal with all these
- 1:51Speaker 2: different tricky client types. Well we have the answer for
- 1:57Speaker 2: you today. We have a wonderful book that was just
- 2:00Speaker 2: published in English and it's been published previously international, and
- 2:07Speaker 2: the book is Clean Up Your Client List. It's the
- 2:11Speaker 2: no guilt guide to managing seven tricky client types and
- 2:16Speaker 2: making space for the ones that fuel your success. And
- 2:21Speaker 2: the author of that book is Jennifer Delano and Jennifer
- 2:27Speaker 2: is a PR strategist, number one Amazon best selling author
- 2:31Speaker 2: of this book, Clean Up Your Client List, and she
- 2:35Speaker 2: helps entrepreneurs and leaders grow by attracting the right clients
- 2:40Speaker 2: through strong positioning, visibility and clear boundaries. She's known for
- 2:47Speaker 2: her Dutch Nobs approach to PR and business growth. Jennifer
- 2:52Speaker 2: works across Europe, runs the award winning agency PR Goers
- 2:57Speaker 2: and is often called the pa Are Queen of the Netherlands. Well,
- 3:03Speaker 2: her majesty, please join us at the stage and we
- 3:08Speaker 2: would love to hear everything that Jennifer has to say
- 3:12Speaker 2: to us today about her wonderful new book that's been
- 3:16Speaker 2: published around the world. Jennifer, welcome to the show.
- 3:21Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah.
- 3:25Speaker 2: Well, it's great to have you, Jennifer. And I always
- 3:28Speaker 2: like to ask guests how did they enter into their profession.
- 3:32Speaker 2: You've been in the PR and marketing space for a
- 3:34Speaker 2: long time now you're the PR Queen of the Netherlands,
- 3:39Speaker 2: so how did you ascend to the royalty levels here?
- 3:45Speaker 4: How?
- 3:45Speaker 3: Yes, Well, the magic of ding PR that especially the
- 3:51Speaker 3: results that PR can gain for a brand or a business.
- 3:56Speaker 3: I think it's absolutely magical. And I'm totally in love
- 4:01Speaker 3: with good stories but also building great stories, and I
- 4:06Speaker 3: think it's I think it's still mesmerizing how people can
- 4:11Speaker 3: send out pressly it's not working, they call me. I'll
- 4:16Speaker 3: draft it over, change the story a little bit, and
- 4:19Speaker 3: it does work. And I run hundreds and hundreds of campaigns.
- 4:23Speaker 3: I can tell you when the story is good or
- 4:26Speaker 3: which isn't. And yes, it's just a magical way of
- 4:32Speaker 3: making a brand very very visible and get in the
- 4:37Speaker 3: end clients in well.
- 4:39Speaker 2: As they say, stories sell and we write a lot
- 4:44Speaker 2: about storytelling in the business development body of knowledge. There's
- 4:48Speaker 2: actually science associated with this, neuroscience and how it helps
- 4:53Speaker 2: your prospects evolve and learn and grow with you. But
- 4:58Speaker 2: I would love to hear the story Jennifer about why
- 5:01Speaker 2: did you write the book.
- 5:03Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a very good question. I'm a long time
- 5:08Speaker 3: ago it was really really good hot to blog. Everyone
- 5:14Speaker 3: had a blog. Well most of the listeners have no
- 5:17Speaker 3: idea that this time exists. But long time ago, we're
- 5:20Speaker 3: a little bit older imateure. Everyone had a blogspot block
- 5:25Speaker 3: and my blog spot was about so I was blogging
- 5:28Speaker 3: about client that did not fit. And I blogged like
- 5:32Speaker 3: fifty sixty seventy of these stories about non fitting clients,
- 5:37Speaker 3: and I gave them a funky title. I wrote about
- 5:40Speaker 3: how I met them. I wrote about what went wrong,
- 5:44Speaker 3: how I could have been, you know, knowing that this
- 5:48Speaker 3: was not a match. But I learned about it, and
- 5:51Speaker 3: I also started on how much energy, money and time
- 5:54Speaker 3: they cost me. And first it was just fun. I
- 5:59Speaker 3: shared it on Facebook. People loved it and everyone I
- 6:04Speaker 3: talked about like talked about this subject with they always
- 6:08Speaker 3: had their own story. Then yeah, that that that is
- 6:13Speaker 3: something you know, it's fun to tell you know when
- 6:15Speaker 3: when you're drinking coffee with you Oh my god, what
- 6:18Speaker 3: I meant? And yeah, it was a long time. It
- 6:21Speaker 3: was a fun, you know, passion project, let's say, a blog.
- 6:26Speaker 3: And during Corona we had some time to think and
- 6:30Speaker 3: reflect on like what kind of things do we want
- 6:32Speaker 3: to do? And yes, I just kept on thinking about
- 6:36Speaker 3: these blogs just being there while the stories were so
- 6:38Speaker 3: great and people really it really had some tracks in
- 6:42Speaker 3: when I told people about it and then I want
- 6:46Speaker 3: this pizza dinner and so I basically I had two people,
- 6:54Speaker 3: you know, asking me like what do you want to do?
- 6:56Speaker 3: What is there still you know that you don't do
- 6:58Speaker 3: but you should like that. And in the end we
- 7:01Speaker 3: came up with this book. I d nac alone, which
- 7:04Speaker 3: means something like saying no base off, and uh so
- 7:09Speaker 3: the idea was born. So we start pitching it to
- 7:12Speaker 3: a publisher. I found the best publisher in Holland. That's
- 7:15Speaker 3: basically the start of the Dutch book.
- 7:18Speaker 2: Yeah, folks, if you're if you're just listening here, Jennifer
- 7:21Speaker 2: is showing us a copy of her original Dutch book
- 7:24Speaker 2: with a yellow cover. And it looks like you're tossing
- 7:28Speaker 2: a customer into a trash can here in this this humor,
- 7:33Speaker 2: Jennifer herself doing this. It's just a graphic folks.
- 7:36Speaker 3: But yes, my publisher decided not me, and I uh
- 7:42Speaker 3: so the book out on the market. I gave it
- 7:46Speaker 3: all my pr and marketing effort that I could and
- 7:50Speaker 3: it got the number one and management book DNA, which
- 7:52Speaker 3: is like the biggest management book website in Holland. Then
- 7:56Speaker 3: last year the German version followed ninezag a loon. So
- 8:01Speaker 3: I'm showing now the German book version of it. Total different,
- 8:06Speaker 3: total different cover, also chosen by the publisher. Yes, and
- 8:10Speaker 3: then I put my whole heart to make it totally international,
- 8:14Speaker 3: and that's how cleaned up my client list got there. Yes,
- 8:19Speaker 3: I thought it was easy, just translate the book and
- 8:22Speaker 3: you don't, Well, that was not the case. This is
- 8:26Speaker 3: more than four months of very hard working and then
- 8:29Speaker 3: I don't count all the month I was looking for
- 8:30Speaker 3: the writing, but it paid all out. Yes, it's number
- 8:35Speaker 3: one book now and I'm very proud, and it's amazing
- 8:40Speaker 3: that are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of readers.
- 8:45Speaker 2: Well, congratulations on being a top selling book and in
- 8:50Speaker 2: multiple languages. That's extremely impressive. But I think it speaks
- 8:55Speaker 2: to how important a topic this is. And I just
- 9:00Speaker 2: posted on this last week on LinkedIn about pruning your
- 9:04Speaker 2: customers that are no longer good fits, or even pruning
- 9:08Speaker 2: prospects that may end up being poor fits for you
- 9:12Speaker 2: and business reasons aside, this is just very good therapy
- 9:16Speaker 2: for fellow business developers to commiserate about customers. Matter of fact,
- 9:20Speaker 2: right before recording this show, I was on the phone
- 9:23Speaker 2: with a colleague and we were commiserating about a customer.
- 9:25Speaker 3: So and there you go.
- 9:28Speaker 2: It's so relatable, right, it's relatable and it you know,
- 9:32Speaker 2: I mean all kidding aside, it's important to have a
- 9:34Speaker 2: support network in your business development colleague team, you know,
- 9:39Speaker 2: folks that you can reach out to friends of yours,
- 9:42Speaker 2: counterparts that you can bounce ideas off of, you know,
- 9:45Speaker 2: complain a little bit and learn from. And you can
- 9:49Speaker 2: certainly do that today in this podcast with Jennifer and
- 9:52Speaker 2: here a wonderful book. And so, Jennifer, with no further ado,
- 9:55Speaker 2: let's jump into your book again again. Folks for listening,
- 9:59Speaker 2: This is up your client list from Jennifer Dellan. Now,
- 10:03Speaker 2: so Jennifer, tell us what's the number one takeaway or
- 10:07Speaker 2: tactic from your book you would like to share with everybody.
- 10:10Speaker 4: Yeah, well, if we really try to get to three
- 10:15Speaker 4: lessons you can get out of book, then the first
- 10:17Speaker 4: lesson will be most people think that business development is about.
- 10:22Speaker 3: Getting more clients. I disagree. Growth start with saying no,
- 10:28Speaker 3: and then we get back to the eighty twenty rule,
- 10:32Speaker 3: like eighty percent of your time makes twenty percent of
- 10:34Speaker 3: the money, or eighty percent of the money that you
- 10:38Speaker 3: make is with twenty percent of the clients. So it
- 10:43Speaker 3: is time to lose the wrong clients. And then we're
- 10:47Speaker 3: talking about the clients that drain your energy and you
- 10:49Speaker 3: know exactly who we're talking about, ignore your boundaries, or
- 10:54Speaker 3: need constant convincing that you're the mode they were looking
- 10:58Speaker 3: for better get rid of these clients. So saying no
- 11:04Speaker 3: clients are that clean up that client list. Firing that
- 11:07Speaker 3: clients isn't a philiar it's a growth strategy. That would
- 11:11Speaker 3: be my first insights out of this book.
- 11:15Speaker 2: Well, I love how you started it off, Jennifer. You
- 11:18Speaker 2: said that business development is misunderstood so many times. People
- 11:22Speaker 2: just think it's about finding leads and helping close prospects
- 11:27Speaker 2: and convert them into customers and that's not the case, right.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Business development is often involved and should be always involved
- 11:34Speaker 2: through the entire customer journey, particularly after a conversion. We
- 11:39Speaker 2: are the ones that engage with those customers and help
- 11:42Speaker 2: get them through the success phase and into the growth
- 11:45Speaker 2: phase so that ultimately they become such strong advocates of
- 11:49Speaker 2: for us that they provide referrals which are the most
- 11:53Speaker 2: powerful growth engines that you could you could focus on
- 11:57Speaker 2: in business development. But and here's the key point I
- 12:01Speaker 2: think you're making, Jennifer, is you have to know when
- 12:04Speaker 2: to say no.
- 12:05Speaker 3: Right.
- 12:05Speaker 2: You have to know when to say this prospect is
- 12:10Speaker 2: not going to be a good fit for us. Yes
- 12:12Speaker 2: they could be a prospect and we could convert them,
- 12:15Speaker 2: and yes they could have a need for our services,
- 12:19Speaker 2: but it's not going to be a great fit. And
- 12:22Speaker 2: then even when you do bring them on board, what
- 12:24Speaker 2: you're saying is you're constantly vetting them and watching them
- 12:29Speaker 2: evolve and seeing how they perform as customers.
- 12:34Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, and if you have a bad start today,
- 12:39Speaker 3: we're calling that redflex. If you see redflex during the
- 12:44Speaker 3: prospecting time, you will see bigger red flex the moment
- 12:48Speaker 3: you start working with them. So love yourself your time,
- 12:51Speaker 3: your money, Just say no, yes, say no.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Just say no. I love it. I love it. Okay,
- 12:58Speaker 2: so let's jump from tactics number one too, what's what's
- 13:01Speaker 2: number two?
- 13:02Speaker 3: The second insight of the book is positioning over prospecting.
- 13:09Speaker 3: And what I mean is if you have to charge
- 13:12Speaker 3: to chase or convince someone, you're talking to the wrong person.
- 13:18Speaker 3: Your ideal client is a client who knows what you do,
- 13:22Speaker 3: who love what you do, who love what you do
- 13:24Speaker 3: and how you do this. And yeah, it's all starting
- 13:29Speaker 3: with making clear who you are for and who you're
- 13:33Speaker 3: not for. And it's very very important that you share
- 13:37Speaker 3: your opinion, your standards, your values, how you work and
- 13:43Speaker 3: and act like take it or leave it. And then
- 13:48Speaker 3: then with that process, your sales scholls won't be sales
- 13:51Speaker 3: scholls anymore, but alignment checks instead of negotiations. And it's
- 13:59Speaker 3: not an easy I'm talking about it like, this is
- 14:01Speaker 3: how you should do it. I'm more than ten years
- 14:03Speaker 3: in business, I know how hard it is, but this
- 14:07Speaker 3: is it's hard to say no, and it's hard to choose.
- 14:11Speaker 3: But if you don't choose in who you want work for,
- 14:14Speaker 3: it's not then they will not choose you.
- 14:18Speaker 2: Yeah, This is so critical, folks, and it sounds a
- 14:21Speaker 2: little harsh, you know.
- 14:23Speaker 3: It sounds absolutely hard, and it is hard. It's really hard.
- 14:27Speaker 3: But it is so necessary to love yourself enough to
- 14:31Speaker 3: just do it.
- 14:32Speaker 2: Yeah, and I love how you say that. I love
- 14:34Speaker 2: how you say that. Jennifer is having a sense of
- 14:38Speaker 2: self worth to know that you're not desperate to just
- 14:43Speaker 2: take any deal that comes along. You know that you're
- 14:46Speaker 2: delivering value. If your prospect does not see the same value,
- 14:53Speaker 2: they will not be a good fit for you as
- 14:55Speaker 2: a client. And you can discover that as you evolve,
- 15:02Speaker 2: and we talk about it in the Business Development Body
- 15:04Speaker 2: of Knowledge, the process called the nurture intent cycles of engagement.
- 15:08Speaker 2: As you evolve, you should be having these value exchanges,
- 15:12Speaker 2: these little mini contracts that are little indicators that tell you, Okay,
- 15:16Speaker 2: I'm going to give you something, mister or missus, prospect,
- 15:19Speaker 2: I need something in return, either I need some validation
- 15:22Speaker 2: or I need you to provide me information. And if
- 15:26Speaker 2: you don't get those then you can know, you'll know
- 15:30Speaker 2: that'll be a red flag. But you'll also know you'll
- 15:33Speaker 2: fall into what I call the sucker cycle. You keep giving,
- 15:36Speaker 2: you keep giving, you keep giving and you get nothing
- 15:38Speaker 2: in return, huge red flag folks. Okay, in the sophisticated
- 15:45Speaker 2: experienced business developers, marketers, pr experts like Jennifer, they've seen
- 15:50Speaker 2: it time and again where you may jump on that
- 15:54Speaker 2: prospect opportunity and those red flags that you saw in
- 15:58Speaker 2: the prospecting phase turn into huge red flags. And sometimes
- 16:02Speaker 2: in worst case scenarios, it can be a lot of
- 16:05Speaker 2: red numbers. It can be a lot of red numbers
- 16:07Speaker 2: because you brought on the wrong customer. And that's why again,
- 16:12Speaker 2: this is kind of a playoff of just say no,
- 16:14Speaker 2: but what understanding, kind of going to the next level.
- 16:17Speaker 2: And I like what you said, Jennifer. It's not about negotiation.
- 16:21Speaker 2: It's about alignment, being aligned on an equivalent value basis.
- 16:25Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, Yeah, totally agree on this.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I also like what you said again,
- 16:33Speaker 2: it's about a sense of self worth and self preservation.
- 16:38Speaker 2: I always like to share with folks. We're business developers,
- 16:42Speaker 2: we're like lifeguards. My mission is to when I spot
- 16:46Speaker 2: somebody that's in distress that has a need, I swim
- 16:50Speaker 2: out to them and I throw them a life fest
- 16:54Speaker 2: a buoye and I say, okay, here it is. You
- 16:58Speaker 2: can come with me, don't come with me. Can care less.
- 17:00Speaker 2: I'm not the cops. I'm a lifeguard. Okay. If you
- 17:03Speaker 2: can't realize you're drowning in whatever situation you have going
- 17:06Speaker 2: on right now, Hey, that's fine. I've got plenty of
- 17:08Speaker 2: other people on the beach. I need to be saving
- 17:11Speaker 2: and not to mention, I need to save myself. So
- 17:13Speaker 2: if you're going to try and pull me down with you, okay,
- 17:16Speaker 2: it's game over. You're you're on your own, all right.
- 17:20Speaker 2: So I really like this mentality, and again, it could
- 17:23Speaker 2: be kind of harsh for people to hear that initially,
- 17:25Speaker 2: and particularly the young business developers. They just want to
- 17:29Speaker 2: go out there and they want to save the world
- 17:30Speaker 2: and they want to sell to everybody, and they want
- 17:32Speaker 2: to bring on prospects in the door. But that cannot
- 17:36Speaker 2: sometimes your clients.
- 17:38Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's that's the first that's the first thing
- 17:43Speaker 3: they will notice. Not everyone is your client and you
- 17:47Speaker 3: don't want to work with or do you know everyone
- 17:52Speaker 3: that's that's not that's really not the case. And you
- 17:55Speaker 3: find it out while working. There are clients you you
- 17:59Speaker 3: it's so easy to talk to them, it's so easy
- 18:02Speaker 3: to make them happy. It's you know, they pay their
- 18:05Speaker 3: invoices quickly. And the only thing you should ask as
- 18:10Speaker 3: a business developer is how do it from more of these?
- 18:13Speaker 3: And and you know, don't wonder why is the other one?
- 18:17Speaker 3: Why isn't this working? Just wonder how do I find
- 18:20Speaker 3: morphy while getting rid of the ones it doesn't work?
- 18:23Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic. And that's spoken like a marketer and
- 18:26Speaker 2: a PR person who's been doing this for a long time.
- 18:28Speaker 2: And folks, this is why it's important to work as
- 18:30Speaker 2: a team. We often talk about alignment or misalignment between
- 18:33Speaker 2: marketing and sales and BD, but this is where the
- 18:36Speaker 2: BD part is so critical, because as you're learning these
- 18:39Speaker 2: lessons post conversion and supporting these customers, it's important to
- 18:44Speaker 2: go back to your marketing and PR teammates and then say, hey, folks,
- 18:50Speaker 2: this is this customer is so awesome. We need more
- 18:53Speaker 2: of them? Oh okay, great? Well, that then shifts and
- 18:56Speaker 2: modifies your ideal customer profile so that everybody is on
- 19:00Speaker 2: the same sheet of music of Okay, this is where
- 19:02Speaker 2: I found that customer. This is how we engage them,
- 19:05Speaker 2: this is the content they love. Great, let's attract more
- 19:08Speaker 2: of those please, so great stuff Okay, Jennifer, let's bring
- 19:11Speaker 2: it home with the number three tactic or takeaway from
- 19:14Speaker 2: your book.
- 19:15Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's the most satisfying takeaway is that your
- 19:21Speaker 3: next best client already knows your name. And I mean
- 19:26Speaker 3: that the well, if you get married within now in
- 19:31Speaker 3: five years, eighty percent chance that the person you go
- 19:34Speaker 3: to marry is already in your network. Well that is
- 19:37Speaker 3: with clients, it's exactly the same. They already know your name.
- 19:42Speaker 3: You appeared already through podcast media client when they know
- 19:47Speaker 3: your competitant, they know you work for the competit they're like,
- 19:50Speaker 3: your name is already out there, and that visibility isn't marketing,
- 19:54Speaker 3: it's a signal. And so there was hope you'll find
- 20:00Speaker 3: these clients that you're looking for. And when your client
- 20:02Speaker 3: list is clean, your business development stops feeling heavy and
- 20:08Speaker 3: start feeling effortless. And what I mean with that, if
- 20:11Speaker 3: you get rid of the clients that doesn't fit, you
- 20:15Speaker 3: will have the time and the focus to find the
- 20:18Speaker 3: clients that you actually need. And if you just you know,
- 20:22Speaker 3: you read you try to solve every problem with the
- 20:25Speaker 3: client that aren't really a good fit, just quit that,
- 20:29Speaker 3: get the time open the door to this ideal client.
- 20:33Speaker 3: Tell the world that who you're looking for, and ask clients,
- 20:37Speaker 3: your current clients. At the marketing and pure tip, ask
- 20:40Speaker 3: your current client, do you know someone I should talk to?
- 20:45Speaker 2: Like?
- 20:45Speaker 3: Because the ideal client happen to know other ideal clients
- 20:51Speaker 3: who have the same spirit, who have the same happiness,
- 20:54Speaker 3: who have the same way of working. So there is
- 20:59Speaker 3: goal for you do find.
- 21:01Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, as my mother always liked to tell me,
- 21:04Speaker 2: water seeks its own level. And when you find the
- 21:12Speaker 2: right customers and you'll feel it, you'll know it. I mean,
- 21:14Speaker 2: you'll come away from those customer engagements energize. There are
- 21:17Speaker 2: some customers I have and I walk away every time
- 21:20Speaker 2: I meet them thinking, Wow, I'm just so lucky to
- 21:23Speaker 2: have them as customers. They make me so happy. They're
- 21:26Speaker 2: just nice people and wonderful people, and they bring great referrals. So, folks,
- 21:31Speaker 2: I think there are a couple of things to unpack
- 21:33Speaker 2: from what Jennifer just said. First of all, spoken like
- 21:36Speaker 2: a wonderfully, wonderfully experienced PR and marketing person. Your reputation
- 21:41Speaker 2: is out there. You're building that brand and people know you.
- 21:45Speaker 2: You may not know them, but they know you. They're
- 21:47Speaker 2: hearing about you. They're listening, they're engaging, probably listening to
- 21:50Speaker 2: your podcasts, reading your blogs or your LinkedIn posts. They're
- 21:56Speaker 2: probably not liking, they're probably not commenting, but they're out.
- 21:59Speaker 3: There and waiting for the right moment.
- 22:04Speaker 2: Waiting for the right moment. And sometime that right moment
- 22:07Speaker 2: comes when you ask for your existing customer to say, Hey,
- 22:12Speaker 2: we'd love to be able to share all the great
- 22:14Speaker 2: services like we've done for you, mister or missus customer.
- 22:17Speaker 2: Do you know of any others that you think have
- 22:19Speaker 2: the same needs that you may have, and if you do,
- 22:21Speaker 2: please share them with me, and that what happens there
- 22:26Speaker 2: is magical. Those referrals have a conversion rate over fifty percent. Okay,
- 22:30Speaker 2: cold calls are like five percent, And that's if you're
- 22:32Speaker 2: really good. All these other BD tactics that you hear about,
- 22:36Speaker 2: cold outbound, warm outbound, all these things. Referrals crush it.
- 22:41Speaker 2: They do. There's no better tactic in the world. And
- 22:44Speaker 2: the way you're going to achieve that is by understanding
- 22:49Speaker 2: who your ideal clients are and cleaning up your client list. So, Jennifer,
- 22:57Speaker 2: let me just kind of summarize what we talked about
- 22:59Speaker 2: here today. Tactic Number one, just say.
- 23:02Speaker 3: No, yes, yes, do it. You can't do it, you can.
- 23:07Speaker 2: Do it, folks, just say no, and when you do,
- 23:11Speaker 2: you'll probably find that it is very empowering. Second, it's
- 23:16Speaker 2: not about the negotiation, it's about the alignment. They should
- 23:20Speaker 2: know that you're delivering value. If they devalue you, then
- 23:25Speaker 2: that is a huge red flag. And then finally, folks,
- 23:30Speaker 2: it's the eighty twenty rule. Eighty percent of your future
- 23:33Speaker 2: customers already know you. They've heard about you, they're engaging,
- 23:36Speaker 2: they're listening, and they're talking to their friends, and some
- 23:39Speaker 2: of those friends maybe your existing customers. So reach out,
- 23:43Speaker 2: ask for those referrals, and you may be delightfully surprised
- 23:47Speaker 2: to see new customers coming to you through referrals with
- 23:51Speaker 2: a very high conversion rate. And again, we're just talking
- 23:56Speaker 2: about a few high level concepts that Jennifer has generally
- 24:00Speaker 2: shared with us today about that are packed in her
- 24:04Speaker 2: book called Clean Up Your Client List. And again it's
- 24:07Speaker 2: from Jennifer Dellano. It's available on Amazon. You can get
- 24:10Speaker 2: your copy there. Jennifer, how can folks follow you, connect
- 24:15Speaker 2: with you, engage with you.
- 24:17Speaker 3: Yes, after they went to Amazon, go my book clean
- 24:21Speaker 3: Up your client list. They're more than happy to follow
- 24:24Speaker 3: me on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, even TikTok these days.
- 24:31Speaker 3: So search for your favorite in your favorite social media
- 24:35Speaker 3: app to Jennifer Lano and you can follow me and
- 24:39Speaker 3: ask me any question. For now, I'd like to say,
- 24:44Speaker 3: go do it. Go find these clients that teach you something,
- 24:49Speaker 3: that pay you rights, They love your work and make
- 24:52Speaker 3: you also a very happy human being.
- 24:55Speaker 2: Well, your majesty, the Queen of pr of the Netherlands,
- 25:00Speaker 2: thank you for gracing us with your presence and your
- 25:05Speaker 2: wisdom today. All kidding aside, Jennifer, thank you so much
- 25:08Speaker 2: for sharing just such fantastic tactics concepts with us and
- 25:12Speaker 2: folks again, remember grab a copy of Jennifer's book, It's
- 25:17Speaker 2: again Clean Up Your Client List by Jennifer Deleano, available
- 25:22Speaker 2: in English on Amazon and if you want it in
- 25:26Speaker 2: Dutch or German you can get that too. Jennifer, again,
- 25:30Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us today. It's been
- 25:34Speaker 2: such a pleasure, and again, thank you for everything you
- 25:36Speaker 2: do for the business development profession.
- 25:39Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for having me have a
- 25:42Speaker 3: great weal. I'm looking forward to all the replies reaction
- 25:45Speaker 3: d Emson, whatever happens off the Red Boasts online.
- 25:51Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
- 25:55Speaker 1: our free community of corporate partners and business development professionals
- 26:00Speaker 1: advancing the art, science, and ethics of the business development
- 26:04Speaker 1: profession at Gbdassociation dot org.